


An Accident, She Swears

by imperiality



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blogging, F/M, Fluff, Ghosts, YouTube, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2019-11-14 07:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18048236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperiality/pseuds/imperiality
Summary: TheseKogane Conspiracy Campaignvideos just popping up on Allura's recommended Youtube watch list. She could resist everything but temptation.Now look where it got her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> not sponsored by youtube 
> 
> (((  
> (((((((yet)))  
> ))
> 
> is there actually a hot sauce conspiracy in Michigan? Heck if in know but i'd DIE if there was. someone hmu

She swears... it really was just... kind of an accident. They decided to show up on her reccomended’s one day and... she hasn't looked back since.

 

—-

 

Allura has wanted to start her own beauty and fashion blog since she knew it was even a thing. Playing dress-up with her mommy’s clothes at age 6 was the breath of life to what would be Allura’s all-consuming, insatiable, irrevocable and nigh-unmatchable passion for fashion.

Oh, and beauty.

Clothing from a young age had become her super power, her ultimate weapon. Going to school, going to college, then going to work, every _moment_ she spent walking out of the house was an opportunity to reinvent herself with clothing. As soon as her mother let her start dabbling with make up, her measly wet rag of a weapon became a _tank._ No facet of herself was left unexplored by cosmetics or clothing.

Fashion and beauty blogging was just what she needed to share her love of style with the world.

But Allura, knowing all too well the ways of the world, knew that she had to start small in gaining a reputation. Not that she couldn’t or hasn’t dealt with her fair share of unpleasant company. The prospect of dealing with unsavory comments in what she wanted to become her livelihood, though? She thought not.

So she started a column on her very own self-hosted website. She got all kinds of learned and educated on the ins and outs of blogging. She sat herself down and taught herself everything she needed to be eloquent and equipped in the fashion world. Allura followed models and designers and make up artists on Twitter and Instagram and Youtube.

Soon after she had however, Twitter became a headache. Instagram became a chore. Youtube, though… Youtube became something just short of a God-send. On Youtube, she didn’t need to deal with the nasty discourse that Twitter promised. When she checked her Youtube subscriptions, there were beautiful faces and artful gowns that could inspire envy like Instagram, but didn’t. On Youtube, Allura felt she had the full context and timeline it took to go from- (oh dear she hates the phrase, but-) _drab_ to _fab_.

Really, she felt like she had it all. She learned marketing techniques for her own blog on the site! She discovered new make up techniques and trends. It was all the currentness of the fashion world without the Harper’s Bazaar politics.

As accompaniment to the rest of her daily watching, every so often, random videos would appear on her recommended list without prompting. Well…Allura utilized Youtube for work _and_ play. The occasional anime critique was usual on the randomized list. Baking show recipes. Music she could care less about. Not that she had anything against anime or baking or certain music, but she in her stubbornness and dislike for change could not be paid to watch anime, baking or music videos. It just wouldn’t happen.

When he started showing up on her recommended list after watching one (“ _It was one time, Uncle Coran!_ ”) conspiracy video, he started showing up all over the place.

Allura couldn’t say she wasn’t curious.

 _He_ was Keith Kogane.

He usually posted about aliens, conspiracy, documentaries and the like.

He…

Hmm.

All Allura knew was that he was some kind of trouble.

Allura liked ghost haunting videos as much as the next person. She wanted to be a beauty influencer or stylist yes, but she enjoyed equally the slouching-at-home-and-getting-salt-and-vinegar-chip-crumbs-on-her-boobs thing, too. She saw no reason why one week she couldn’t mix it up sometimes. Make one week a little less work-heavy… A little more play-heavy.

Oh that came out wrong.

Still.

It didn’t change the fact that she was on her 5th video of the night already of this Keith Kogane person. Or that it wouldn’t be the last video of the night, either.

 

—-

 

After having finished an unforgivably goofy video parodying a typical ghost-hunting episode, Allura was ready to x out of the page and get back to work writing her next blog entry. She was so close, too. She had such pure intentions. Allura would have closed out of the webpage and moved on, maybe not even sending herself down this hole at all, had not she seen The Thumbnail.

The picture itself was very clean. Very succinct. Dead center of the image was a cliche green alien doodle with the big black eyes, with white text overlay of the video’s title. Looking at the video’s thumbnail alone, Allura would have thought nothing of it. She really truly would have closed out of her web page. Alas, the story didn’t end with the humble thumbnail. Allura may not be a wholly visual person, so the video’s accompanying title was what really trapped and locked her attention:

_why did this ghost keep trying to make me sing the He Man Hey song?_

She just couldn’t believe it. _Was_ it simple click-bait? If she clicked on the video, would she have been accosted by something close to a Rick Roll? This channel by the name of _Kogane’s Conspiracy Campaign_ offered little ethical authority, but.

But, she.

She simply had to watch the video.

With a slow, painfully slow drag of her finger, she hovered her mouse over the video. Squinting her eyes, turning her face away, she raised her brows and clicked on the video with all the force she could muster.

The page to the video loaded.

The video began.

The video was not a Rick Roll.

From a black screen, a dismembered voice began,

“ _Just in case you guys think I’m lying_ -“ then an eery creaking. On the bottom of the screen were green-text captions that followed along to the “ghost’s” voice.

Allura had not been Rick Rolled, or click-baited at all. Well, she hoped.

The ghost’s- “ghost’s”?- voice was _spookily_ articulate as it said, or rather moaned,

“ _Siiing…. sssi-iing…..Heeee- Heeeeeee, maaan,”_

-But not too articulate to be unbelievable,

_and it softly, ever so slowly, hums the bloody He Man Hey song._

Allura can’t help but cry in the scant sanctity of her room-shared apartment.

“THE GHOST IS SINGING THE BLOODY HE-MAN HEY SONG!”

Then the screen was no longer black.

Allura choked on the cry she exhaled.

Emerging from the black screen and glowing captions was a face she absolutely could not reconcile to match with its voice. The voice that had narrated was by no means unattractive, not at all. She didn’t make it a large habit of hers to watch any other videos than make up or otherwise research videos, so she didn’t have a gauge for what she should have expected when she clicked on the video.

The voice itself was actually quite gentle. A little breathy. Like… like every word was spoken like a sigh… Refreshing.

Mmm.

Allura wondered how a voice like that would feel against her neck.

She-

 _Oh gracious!_ She came back to herself. _Now I have to rewind._

As he spoke on, introducing the video and whatnot, she clicked to open the description box. She always liked to get it out of the way so she could save time, but found herself hesitating this time around. Again, her finger only just hovered over the mousepad.

It only took her two minutes into the video to match the man’s voice to his face. Now that his face had become a prominent feature in the video, Allura couldn’t help but lean more and more forward. With his pale, smooth pale skin and dark rich hair, they made the perfect frame for his purple-

“Eyes surely cannot be that purple.” Allura didn’t bother to pause the video for her speculations. “They can’t be!”

Until she realized her nose was about an inch away from her monitor. She coughed to herself, (good one,) smoothed down her hair and let the video play on.

All in all, it was an entertaining watch. She didn’t know if she was completely sold on the ghosts or supernatural thing, but she considered herself more open than most. The way that Kogane person narrated his video and asserted his findings all throughout the video gave him a professionalism she really respected. She thought perhaps he took himself too seriously, but then again, she knows nothing about that realm of existence. All in all, she was glad she found his video. Arbitrary means though it was.

As a mater of fact, she wouldn’t mind watching another one.

_Maybe he’s done some ASMR…_

She scrolled through the suggested watch list to find another shocking discovery.

_I’m Becoming a Ghost Hunter_

Amidst the videos surrounding it with their lax capitalization and click-bait worthy titling, that video had stood out amongst the bunch. The thumbnail of the video featured Kogane front and center, holding an EVP, donned in a sleek black vest inlaid with purple designs.

With far less hesitation than when she had first clicked into his channel, she flew her mouse to rest over the link. Becoming a ghost hunter? What did exactly did that mean, and what exactly for Kogane? How long ago had the video been published? What other kind of content would that entail?

Then she stopped.

_A title like that. It seems like a “secret project” reveal. I don’t want to just dive into a video like that._

So instead of the eye-catching, evocative _I’m becoming a Ghost Hunter_ , Allura clicks on the safer _Michigan hot sauce conspiracy??._ She watches the video and lets the assimilation of his channel begin.

 

—-

 

What was supposed to be an easy assimilation to videos became a full binge session. A torrent, really. Video after video, Allura watched Kogane’s videos only sometimes interspersed with new make up tutorials or clothing diaries.

Video after video, something about Kogane’s channel compelled her to keep coming back. The content itself ranged from videos like the first one Allura watched; ghost huntings and interactions. That quickly lent his channel to musings and dabblings into the extraterrestrial. Which then gave way to conversations ofMartian life support and faked moon landings and conspiracies in Michigan??

Kogane never tried to be funny in his videos. Not intentionally. After he spoke he never allowed a pause for laughter. Indeed, because whenever his friends or crewmates appeared in videos with him, he always looked mildly stunned whenever they laugh. It could have been that Kogane had never intended for humor. Or, and what Allura had starting to think was more likely, Kogane didn’t think he had the capacity for laugh out loud humor.

Which made Allura quite sad.

In almost every video she watched, she found herself snorting or feeling like she had to wipe tears away. Kogane was so passionate. It was his passion that persuaded Allura to believe Kogane had the authority to speak about what he did. It was often his passion too, that got him into situations or made him say things that put Allura in fits.

After a particularly short and sharp video that left her in stitches, she decided to be brave. She decided to rise above from Kogane’s viewing metrics. She no longer wanted to remain another statistic.

She opened her mouth.

Or rather, she typed her fingers because after that video (about which she had found herself still giggling as she wrote,) she submitted her first comment.

It was nothing terribly long. It wasn’t anything close to personal. The video she commented on was after some silly conspiracy commentary that Kogane himself realized as silly. It left her feeling good, and she could tell he had fun making it.

So that’s what she said.

Then, when she watched a view videos more, she made her next comment.

What could she say? She came for the ghosts and stayed for the conspiracies.

Kogane soon found himself another subscriber.

 

—-

 

Not all of Kogane’s videos were silly, funny conspiracy debunkings, though. Allura believes she mentioned before that Kogane had tendencies with passionate leanings. The woman had come to learn that Kogane’s passion came at a price. It seemed that most anything he felt, he felt deeply.

Sometimes, he’d put it to video.

Allura tended to like his personal vlogs the most.

After one such video, she had to sit in silence for herself a bit. His video at large had been about his journey, or struggle rather, as a full-time Youtuber. Near the end of his video, he gave his advice to his viewers,

“ _Take the leap of faith,”_ he had said in his soft, cotton thread voice of his. “ _You might not know what’s on the other side._ ” He smiled guileless. “ _And sometimes, that’s the best part.”_

It was the most gushy, most sincere thing Allura had heard come out of a man’s mouth in… a while.

Allura didn’t comment on that video.

No.

No instead, she found her Canon.

She ran to grab her tripod.

Allura ran to her room, set up a few lights, strung up a backdrop to hide any background clutter, scrounged around for a microphone and got to work.

Within the week she posted her first video.

Before posting it she knew it wasn’t her best work. She knew she could have made it better. She knew she could have waited to save around to increase “production quality” or “post editing” or other nonsense like that.

But why?

Allura’s not going to say Keith Kogane opened her eyes to any new opportunities. She can’t say he completely restored in her total faith in the human race. Really, what she can say is that his video was like a slap to the face. Maybe she was right to have held off making herself such a public figure… but maybe she held off too long.

Maybe she was right to be apprehensive. Maybe she was right to still be apprehensive.

But maybe Keith was also right.

Maybe it was time to take the leap of faith.

“ _Hello watchers and viewers, and welcome to my boudoir. And no, nothing scandalous like that! I can’t wait to introduce you to my channel a little later, but for now I wanted to jump right in and share with some of you my favorite make up looks and tricks. If you’re interested in how I got this look, please keep watching…”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...friend.....sh........i . P.......??..¿¿

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys, i am so flattered and flustered that people can enjoy this self-insert (basically) of kallura inspired by my crush on MatPat (((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf2-86o5S1o)))
> 
> ..still #notspon ??
> 
> hot damn do i follow a formula and you know what if hallmark can do it then so can i
> 
> or you know what, maybe i'll just run away and become a trashy romance novelist. what do you guys think.

Allura knew to pace herself. She started off slow. _Slow_.

She only posted three make up videos a month, going so far as to completely disable comments while she was at it. She’d heard too many horror stories, moving to avoid as much audience foulness as she could. Besides, all of the thumbs-upped likes told her all she needed to know. For her, the silent appreciation was enough to satisfy.

The filming was never the most time-intensive step. Instead, editing and finishing swallowed up any measly free time Allura had. Should her roommates invite her to wild night on the town, she would shake her head.

“I have to stay and edit my video. Thank you for thinking of me!”

She was tethered to tame evenings in the condo.

Research, make up, filming and editing became her new day by day routine.

Her life continued that way for months. In the mornings she had schooling, in the afternoons she had work, in the evenings she did homework then squeezed herself into another slot to become _the person she knew she could be, inside_ in the blood-shot hours of the night. You know. To make her videos.

She hustled.

Her long nights and early mornings bought Allura bags more expensive than the ones in her closet. Her hectic schedule warped her personal, scholastic and professional life in equal measure. Her vampiric hours drove her roommates near insanity.

“Allura! My boyfriend’s coming over, can you cool it with your filming for like, 10 minutes?”

“ _Allura_! It’s 3 in the morning! Go the hell to bed!”

“Shank me Allura. Trying to watch you with your… make up crap is more painful.”

She neither cooled or slept or shanked for the grueling beginning months. Getting her channel off the ground was the most exhausting effort of all, even before the juggling of her Lives. (What little of her Social Life she had left, especially.)

It was hard work. The hustle kept her on her toes. She often found herself at her wit’s end, and she knew she couldn’t do it alone. While Youtube had become something of a second livelihood, it still remained as her rack to hook her hat on after a long day. After a stressful day at work, all she wanted to do was turn her brain off.

Its presence in her life turned into a second home. In her home of the world wide interweb, a certain Keith Kogane Conspiracy Campaign had occupied a rather lofty room.

Coincidentally, it was Keith Kogane that had become the biggest bastion for Allura’s encouragement. If she ever felt herself getting down, she would find herself face to face with yet another of Keith’s vlogs. Or conspiracy commentaries.

…Or ghost huntings.

At the rate she was watching, Allura had already run out of new videos from Keith to watch. Week by week, she held on by tenterhooks for any and all updates from Keith’s channel.

“Allura really,” she sighed to herself. _This is bordering on obsessive!_

And yet there, another of his videos she had watched.

 

—

 

Month after month, Allura seldom let the juggle of her schedule slip out of her hands. School turned up the heat, work demanded ever more but she remembered to breathe. Chided herself to relax her muscles.

Refused to feel bad as she typed yet another comment on a Kogane video.

The last one she watched had been, essentially, a rant on some documentary she knew _nothing_ about. He had let his passion run away from him a few times, but always immediately apologized and rescinded. Like a scolded puppy. 

_Honestly, hearing him speak makes him seem like one, too._ “I-“ _No, no, no! I can’t comment that! Who do you think you are?_

Whenever she left a little message for Keith’s video, she always tried to comment something more out of the fold. To make herself a little more memorable.

_Not that… that’s important. Greatly. Making yourself stand out._

She found a compromise between what her mind was telling her to say, and what her heart was yearning to profess. She typed:

_Very comprehensive, as always! You’re so passionate about the show, I’m a little tempted to watch myself, now._

Click.

Submit.

She took a deep breath in. Harshly she let it out. It was hardly the first time she had commented, but every time she did, she felt such a rush of thrill.

_Allura, really…_

And every time she did, she would smile to herself for a silent moment before closing out of the page. With a dopey smile on her face, she would allow her flights of fancy to dominate her. For just a little bit. With its eyes of purple and its voice of velvet, Allura’s wish became for her fantasies to be made flesh.

_Wait._

_No._

“WHAT?”

Allura couldn't believe the thought that had flitted through her head.

Ridiculous.

But…

Scratch that. She absolutely could. Any and all thought regarding that Keith Kogane, Allura absolutely believed. Having watched all of Keith’s filmography, it was understandable that his videos or words often slipped into her thoughts. If she were being furthermore honest with herself, she often found herself fantasizing what it would be like to meet this Keith Kogane. Would it be like her meeting her hero? Or would it be a grand profession of her feelings as a secret admirer? What would he be like? What he look like? Under what circumstances would their fateful, fantastical meeting occur?

All of these things and more, Allura let her imagination wander.

She wondered how he moved, how he walked. How would a real, live laugh sound like coming from Keith's lips to Allura’s ears?

 _Oh dear goodness, how did he really sound in_ real life?

Truly, it was the big questions that kept the lady up at night.

_I wonder how he sounds when he's sincerely excited._

Allura could only guess.

_I wonder how he sounds when he’s thoroughly angered._

Allura only speculated.

_I wonder if he’s ever sung at all…_

It was at that point that Allura had enough with suppositions and aimless wondering. Wandering. She decided that night, as a sort of pseudo-lullaby before she went to bed, she would go back to the source. She would go back to the video where it all began.

_why did this ghost keep trying to make me sing the He Man Hey song?_

And no, he didn’t _sing_ in the video. Not even close. He hummed really, more than anything. But his mic pack was sensitive enough to pick it up.

His humming had the same effect on Allura, regardless.

She went to the video, leaned back in her chair, and awaited to be caressed in the welcome timbre of Kogane’s voice.

“ _Just in case you guys think-“_ he began.

Immediately, she let go of the meaning in his words, focussing only on their quality.

Now, she didn’t let herself _drown_ in the sound of his voice. It would have been very easy for her to, but she liked to hold on to her dignity. Yet the more she thought about it, she couldn’t easily articulate exactly why she found Keith’s voice so captivating. While it was true she wasn’t alone in her thoughts (citing the many, many indicative comments of presumably young girls), that found his voice nice, she never knew how far her… appreciation could go before it got strange. Or in the case of the masses of his female audience; “thirsty”.

How would Allura go about describing Keith’s voice to begin with? In the times Keith raised his voice or became impassioned, his voice took on a smooth growl. Unreasonably attractive as it was, he never pulled out those big guns until stressed or offended. Keith’s usual voice was much more calm, much more easy. Like a long swig of rich, black tea. Cottony. Smokey. Pleasant.

The moments in which he became angered and accidentally snapped? His voice turned completely 180, shooting itself into a contrite murmur in the blink of an eye. Keith never let a single instance of frustration go unexplained.

It was that voice, Keith’s voice of prostrating apology, that was Allura’s favorite. The low, peaceful humming he does to appease the ghost… encapsulates it perfectly.

That time was hardly the first time Allura watched the video. She doubted it would be the last. It wasn’t the first time she thought was she did, nor did she doubt it would be the last. It would be, in all ways though, the first time she would follow through.

In a brief moment of either bravery or insanity, in either generosity or arousal, she let her fingers fly across her keyboard to cast her vote with the rest of Keith’s female (or otherwise romantically attracted) audience.

She, and she quotes, typed:

_> Thank you for singing to the poor ghost. I hate to think how remiss we’d all be if you denied us all such a favor. Let me be honest when I say that if you ever did ASMR, I’d absolutely watch!_

Click.

…Submit.

A deep sigh.

A blink of her eyes.

“Hmm.”

The regret was instantaneous.

“Oh _why_ did I _do_ that!”

No take-backsies, Allura! With nary a thought or consideration to Future Allura, Allura Current let her heart take her mind over without a flinch. She… she really had said that. Why did she let herself say that. She knew she should have stuck with her _uncreepy,_ unobtrusive likes on Keith’s videos and put whatever it was that she just said in a box.

In a _box_.

Given that pandora’s box had been unleashed, Allura feared there would no longer be any neat, tidy bowties on her happy ending. That is, if even a blunder like that would still bless her with one.

 

—

 

The next morning, she woke up groggy-eyed. Frizzy-haired. She woke up like any other inconsequential morning and thought nothing of it. In fact, the rest of her day proceeded the same way. She thought nothing of anything much. In fact, it wasn’t until she got home that she remembered the engraved sword hanging over her head. Allura looked up and there it had been. Waiting for her. Taunting her. Reminding her of exactly, precisely how the Keith Kogane would think of her now.

Allura couldn’t even assuage herself by reasoning that her comment would have been buried under waves of comments just like it. The video had been relatively old.

She would know.

She stared at the comment right then.

But wouldn’t you know it? It had a friend.

Allura, not wanting to deny her curiosity or feed her cowardice, immediately opened a new tab for Youtube. In the top right hand corner of the page was a button awaiting her notice. She clicked it. Her palms sweated while her fingertips cooled in anticipation.

Someone had replied to her comment.

Not wanting to face the music quite yet, Allura told herself every rationalization she could. Internally, her battle was loud and frantic. Ultimately, it was lost. Rational had no place in an anxious mind.

Running her fingers through her hair, she clicked on the fate changing, (silly little) video of Keith’s. Ah, and Youtube was ever so kind. So convenient. Quickly, fluidly, the page scrolled down to highlight Allura’s own comment front and center. Resting neatly below it was the accompanying response.

_Hmmm._

Oh, she couldn’t bear to read it. She was simply too embarrassed! Now the whole internet had access to see just how much of a fool out of herself she made!

Until a quick flick of her eyes made her breath catch.

 

**Kogane’s Conspiracy Campaign**

****> You’re not the-

 

Now hold on a second. Had Allura read that correctly? She scrolled back up to the top of the page. Yes, she was on the right video. She scrolled back down the page. Yes, it was her comment that she was (cringingly) looking at. And… and it was… It was _Keith Kogane’s_ reply that she had received.

All went still.

Allura read. And reread. And read again for a final time to make double, triple, absolutely sure-

 

**Kogane’s Conspiracy Campaign**

 

Yes. Yes it was the Keith Kogane.

For whatever forsaken reason, her palms went from sweating to _drenched._ Where at first they were still, they then trembled. The pulse of her heart wasn’t even a consideration until she saw Keith’s name next to hers.

Mm, that came out wrong.

_Why is my face so red? Why is this so dramatic in the first place? Just read it you silly woman!_

She finally let herself read Keith’s comment all the way through.

 

**Kogane’s Conspiracy Campaign**

****> You’re not the first person to say I should. I’ll have to take your word for it, and I don’t think you’d be bad at it, yourself.

 

Was that. Was that a line? What exactly did Keith mean? Did he think she had a nice voice? She had always thought it unique, certainly. But if someone like Keith thought she had a pleasant voice, well.

That changed everything. If Keith found Allura’s voice pleasant or soothing or ASMR-worthy at all, it changed everything! Asking the most obvious question: how had he even come to know about the sound of her voice? She would not be so audacious to presume Keith spent time reaching out to each and every of his followers on social media. Not that he would even have the time to. Allura hadn’t even posted any videos of herself on Instagram where she talked. She doesn’t think.

No, she hadn’t. She was sure. If Keith had truly come into contact with the sound of her voice, then there was only one avenue by which he could have done so.

_Keith Kogane watches my videos?!_

From heart-racing to heart-stopping, the whole excursion of Allura’s comment would give her cardiac arrest.

Accidentally, in the midst of her untamable freak out, Allura had swiped her mouse to an upper right hand corner of her comment. It was then that she noticed three little dots stacked vertically. Her freak out momentarily paused to click on what they could be. When she pressed down on her mouse, two little boxes with text popped up. How curious. Interestingly, the first rectangle said “Edit.” As in, to… edit her comment. Hmm.

Allura’s face evened. Stilled. Soured.

In the lower rectangle.

“ _No._ ”

In the lower rectangle, Allura had the power to Delete her comment all along.

 

—

 

Allura’s roommates yell at her for her gregarious sighs, hours after her untimely discovery.

 

—

 

Unlike almost all Youtubers that Allura had seen, Keith’s channel didn’t have a set posting schedule. Most of his audience and fans were fine with this; going so far as being in support, showering him with positivity that he shouldn’t overwork himself. Allura wasn’t for or against in any big way, but for the past week, Keith hadn’t posted a single video. At all. She had even gone to check his other social media for updates. They too, were empty and unhelpful.

Had Keith befallen a terrible tragedy? Was he ill? Was filming or editing taking longer than usual?

She gasped. _Or worst of all._ She was dread to think, _What if his power went out?_

It was on the 8th day in which all was declared good.

7 days had passed with radio silence, leaving hide nor hair of a particular Keith Kogane. Then, the 8th day shined a new dawn for his channel. Allura woke to an unforgettably special surprise.

The moment she saw Keith had updated, her fingers couldn’t move fast enough to watch his newest upload. So fast and eager was she that she completely bypassed the title of the long-awaited video.

She had curled up in her chair, ready for more ghostly hijinks when a breathy whisper softly impressed noise into Allura’s headphones.

“ _Hey guys-_ “

As fast as it started, Allura paused it. She finally bothered to read the title. Like a mocking or rather like an omen, it read:

_Calm ASMR: I talk to a friendly ghost_

Allura.

Allura could hardly believe it. Keith had done the video. He went ahead and listened to his fans at last, and spent his week recording an ASMR just for them. Allura could barely dare to hope that she had any part in influencing that decision.

 _“Hey guys, I know this video is very different from what I usually do. I hope you all like it._ ” Even Keith’s introduction was spoken in a gentle whisper. “ _Lance, one of my camera guys thought it would be hilarious for me to do since I have such a ‘hot temper’._ ” The video shows a clip of aforementioned Lance waving to the camera. _“I tried to take it as seriously as I could, though. You guys have been saying I should do it and… now I did. I’m not going to be talking to a_ real _ghost during the video, but Shiro-_ “ another quick clip rolls, this time with Keith’s partner in crime Shiro- “ _said it would make a good plot.”_

He drummed his fingers against the tabletop where he recorded.

 _“Um… What else should I say._ ”

His eyes flicked up to something or rather someone over the shot frame. He looked back to the camera.

“ _I really hope I’m not bad at this._ ”

With those auspicious words, his video began. The shot itself seemed to be a long, continuous recording of a dark room with fog rolling through it. High quality B-roll, really. Allura listened the whole way through, finding herself drawn more and more under the more Keith spoke. He didn’t include any extra sound stimulant. The recording was purely his voice and his voice alone.

He consoled the “ghost” in his story, saying things like:

“ _I know it gets lonely, but you’re not alone anymore._ ”

and,

“ _Isn’t it amazing that we’re all part of the same cosmic dust? I’m glad you were a part of it, too.”_

Throughout the video, Allura’s emotions were in constant flux. They engaged in heated war. While the words Keith said sometimes made Allura want to cry, the _way_ Keith said made Allura want to moan. She was having trouble keeping the shivers down her spine to a minimum as it was.

Keith’s video was genuine. Emotional. Allura could have expected nothing less.

She couldn’t have possibly expected the next week to surpass it at all. Surely, not in the way that it had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah, you better believe a chapter 3 is happening up in here  
> as a matter of fact, i'm a little but not so littley tempted to turn this into a 40k romcom


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ''''';;;)))))) finally we're getting somewhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes this thing is so dumb, bless  
> also,,,, y'all gotta know how much grief lance gave keith after the (wink)
> 
> you'll see what i'm talking about 
> 
>  
> 
> Think of this story as a collection of OVAs. They kind of sort of build on each other, but nothing really happens. Kind of like Kiss x Sis, except, this story is,, nothing,,, like kiss x sis ,,,,,,  
> :),,  
> ,,God forgive me

Perhaps it was foolish of Allura to think her channel would take off the way she wanted so soon. After all, she was still only posting 3 videos a month. She hadn’t really been networking herself as a serious vlogger.

After all, she was still treating her little home on the internet as little more than a glorified hobby.

The big questions of herself she still had yet to answer.

 _How big do I even want this channel to be? How far do I want this to go? What do I want to do with this channel? What do I want at_ all?

Who knew a hobby could be so cumbersome? Certainly not Allura. She didn't know all of the responsibilities a seemingly little task could possess. For the better, Allura didn’t know how enjoyable the technical process of her artistic passion would be, what with the video editing and such. There was so much for her still to learn, so much she knew that she didn’t know. Certainly, she was wholly unprepared for the positive response she had received once she allowed her videos to be commented on.

She had no idea just who was watching her videos in the first place.

Actually. That was a lie.

Was it?

Well, she knew who _didn’t_ watch her videos.

“Allura! Seriously, do you need another sparkly thing in your closet?”

“Just so you know, I can hear your video from the other side of the dorm.”

Allura wanted to state for the record that yes she needed all the sparkle she could get and boo-hoo, hearing the video unwittingly was bare recompense for having to hear said roommate engaging in the _devil's tango_ with her newest “friend that was a boy”.

Frankly, her roommates weren’t her target audience.

The woman was ever so thankful her actual audience had more conducive things to say. Like how she had legs for days. And how young girls and older women would literally kill to have hair as glossy as Allura’s. Never forgetting of course the copious marriage proposals that Allura couldn’t discern the sincerity of. All of the comments were nice. More than nice, even. She didn’t read every single one for her ego’s sake, no, but all the flattery was the trippiest drug to her. (She didn’t even have to pay for it; double bonus.)

The comments were nice, but she knew it was time to up the ante. Her little hobby had quickly inflated to something so much more. She formally kissed her social life away, then officially scheduled herself to produce one video every week.

 _That leaves me with enough time for class, work, homework, shopping, filming and editing._ Allura sucked a thin breath through her nose. _So much time._

Though not to worry. She already thoroughly justified it in her mind. Her plan (rhetoric, really) followed as such:

_It’s a lot on my plate, yes. But when I really think about it, how much time do I already spend just squandering it? This is good for me. Putting my time towards something productive. Plus, if I keep up with this Youtube thing for long enough, I’ll get the following I want so I can monetize. Once I do that, I can quit retail once and for all and do fashion full time._

It was a win-win. A fool-proof plan.

_Exactly!_

Funny enough, Allura wasn’t a big participator… connoisseur… of social medial. At all. She didn’t check her Instagram on a daily basis. She hardly checked her Twitter on a weekly basis, and the only instances she got updated on her Youtube was through her email or when she herself posted. With her new self-imposed schedule, she supposed her whimsical attention would find itself face-first with a sledgehammer.

Allura had only herself to blame as she updated the bios of her social media to reflect her new schedule. Only herself.

She reminds herself that she _was_ having fun with this. She was doing this because of the love for the craft. She would be responsible and be happy about it.

Twitter and Instagram took only seconds to update. (For which she was most grateful.) Youtube would have taken scant moments to change as well. Really, it should not have taken upwards of ten.

Fifteen.

Going on thirty minutes, interspersed with doing chores and pacing around her bed and tapping her fingers, trying to work up the fortitude to fully go through with it.

_If you never do this now, you’ll never do this at all! Make your videos shorter, stop trying to be clever with your editing so much. You can do it, Allura._

She pushed stale breath from her lips. Nodded her head.

Cool, calm, controlled and collected- Allura clicked into Youtube. She stroked her mouse to the right side of the page when,

“Hm.”

She really _hadn’t_ kept up with her Youtube in a while. She could have by reading the automated emails she got, but truthfully, Allura deleted the vast majority of them without even opening them. She always forgot how much news and how many notifications could accrue within a mere week. To heck with it, she clicked her little, harmless, friendly notification bell and let herself be washed over by. It All.

After the first month of videos, Allura found most of the comments to be redundant. Or maybe not redundant, but they definitely fell into one of a few categories. (Thankfully the “Hate” category was mostly empty, but she knew to stay humble. Audiences were fickle. Anything could change in the blink of an eye.) Letting her eyes go cross she passively scrolled through until she reached the bottom.

 _Kind, kind, oh how nice. Is my hair_ really _that great? Oh thank God they didn’t see the back of that jacket. Why is no one saying anything about the tailoring of my outfit of the day skirt? Yes, of course they like the cut crease they-_

They-

Allura scrolled up a bit.

“No.”

They left a particular sort of thrill in her heart every time.

_Why does this happen every time?_

Kogane Conspiracy Campaign commented-

Allura found herself stopped fully in her tracks. _The_ Keith Kogane’s innocent, simple comment rested among the wall of the rest. Really, Keith Kogane’s comment shouldn’t have been discernible by any means. Keith’s channel icon wasn’t shocking or provocative in any way. No way could his picture stuck out to her. His channel name was long, yes, but not any longer than some of the septuple-syllabic last names she ran into.

From the fodder of the fold, Keith’s name somehow managed to crop up in neon lights. _Somehow,_ Keith’s name sent Allura in an unexplainable tizzy.

She was just too curious. She had to know what he said.

Updates could wait.

She clicked on his comment and the page brought her to the very first video she had ever published: _5 Fashion Tips for Every Body Type-_

which also served as her channel welcome. An interesting choice for his outspokenness. Dear, she hoped it wasn’t the only video Keith had watched. She smiled and cringed to herself as she let the first few seconds of her video play. The page fully loaded, bringing her down to where Keith Kogane made his mark.

His comment wasn’t very long. A quick skim-through didn’t demarcate himself greatly from the rest of the crowd.

And yet.

_I’m so excited I could throw up. Ridiculous, silly girl._

In all fairness, it's not everyday a moderately famous internet celebrity leaves a personalized message to their virtually invisible follower.She thinks it’s perfectly understandable that she might fangirl a bit if such a thing were to happen.

Because it did.

To her.

Looking over and over and over again at Keith’s words, she can hardly believe, let alone fathom _why_ someone like Keith would watch her video. Keith was hardly Allura’s target demographic. She’d never seen him show interest in anything like what she did. All she knew from his Youtube, (and the Twitter account Lance ran for Keith but didn’t count,) was his love for classic rock, aviation, his family and the supernatural. Cosmetology seemed a bit of a stretch.

Without knowing anything about what Keith did, she would have never guessed he didn’t do make up from his message.

 

 **Keith Kogane**

>The way you edit your videos is very skillful. I like the transition from your crease color to your contour. You’re really good at what you do, and your narrations were the best part (wink).

 

 _Oh… Keith. With the_ (wink).

Nevertheless, it made Allura effervesce with glee. Keith… watching _her_ video… Right then she was just a nobody. The last two trains of thought still in transit in her brain were “Why???” and “How???” Once they finally reached their destination, finally finally, she realized the timing for it was all a little interesting.

Looking back on the comment, she realized he left it just the day before she read it. Which, even more interestingly enough, was only a week after he posted his ASMR video. His video to which she had left little more than what verbally equated to a high five.

Most interesting, indeed.

She tried, tried so very hard not to let her imagination get away from her, but her fantasies can’t help but hope that it was the start of something wonderful.

 

—

 

“More” is not always wonderful. More is sometimes simply more. Allura’s posting schedule was neither wonderful (to her. Her fans, maybe) or more. Her new schedule was honestly just a kick in the butt.

“More”, often let important things slip through the cracks. It was only until she got a direct message from one of her favorite Youtube make up artists that she realized she was getting popular. It had only been a few months, and she was already making a name for herself. It wasn’t until she decided to clear out her email inbox that she discovered how many potential sponsors she had. Monetization was well under way. The increasing attention was soon to overwhelm Allura, but she took it all in stride.

She couldn’t have been all that overwhelmed, regardless. It was all the “more” that buried Keith’s attempts at reaching out to her.

In a fit of true desperation for escapism that neither movies nor music nor fashion nor Kogane’s Conspiracy Campaign videos could fill, Allura found herself drudging along to catch herself up with Instagram. It was eye look after eye look. Runway after runway. Her scrolling served to worsen her boredom so she hastily switched to Twitter.

And ever so interestingly, Allura found herself with a new follower.

By the name of a certain conspiracy campaign.

On a simmering, suspicious hunch, she switched to her Youtube channel.

“I swear.”

It was fascinating. Riveting. There too had Allura found another subscriber. (With the same conspiring name, no less.)

Her heart could hardly take it.

 

—

 

Allura had garnered the Keith Kogane’s attention. She didn’t know what to do with it. She still for the life of her couldn't figure out why she had it in the first place. Did he secretly like to do make up? Was it a pity follow? Was he coerced?Allura knew he was clever, so she didn’t want to ask him straight on as to why he followed her. She knew it wasn’t even that big of a deal either, but she could not quell her curiosity. Fortunately for her, he opened the door himself.

It started with a like.

Not on Allura’s end, no. Don’t be silly. She already knows she had a crush on Keith; it was common knowledge.

This time It wasn’t Allura to usher in the new. By this, Allura was shocked as well. In fact, when Keith liked Allura’s outfit of the day cleverly titled 030219, she couldn’t be bothered to be shocked. She was not mystified or stupefied. The only thing she remembered coherently feeling was utterly _perplexed._

_There’s something going on here…_

More and more on Twitter, Allura found her pictures being liked by Keith. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be going back on her timeline too far, only keeping up with the pictures she currently posted. It was kind, it left her bereft, and it left her even more puzzled than before because while her photos and videos kept being liked, no comments were left from him.

Allura couldn’t bear to leave him hanging, though. She wanted to repay his kindness for kindness.

So she went ahead and liked most all of his Twitter pictures and retweeted the text posts she liked. It only took her about, oh, 40 minutes.

After their mutual liking spree,- _I really should call it something better-_ a new groove was instituted. For every video uploaded, it got a thumbs up. For every photo posted, it was liked. Keith hadn’t reciprocated the retweeting thing nearly as much, but that Allura could understand.

With the new system in place, Allura thought she would be able to normalize Keith’s attention. After all, his likes on any media platform was no longer a new thing. They never exchanged anything other than their unspoken agreement and it was fine. It worked for her. It was welcome and the reciprocal, distant kudos sated her enough without tempting her to raise her hopes. Until More decided to be more again.

 

—

 

The comment was unique to say the least. Peculiar. Uncomfortable in the worst case but… she couldn’t help but agree in the smallest, most frivolous and embarrassing way.

She knew after almost three months of posting that strange comments were to be expected. It was something she didn’t allow herself to forget. In the particular case, she didn't know if the comment itself was strange or… what.

She couldn’t explain it. She might as well share it already:

 

**the handsomest of the bunch**

>keith’s conspiracy campaign led me here!! i know that’s pretty random but i saw he commented on one of your videos and had to watch. (btw, you would make the *cutest* couple just sayinnnn lmao)

Allura… really didn’t know what to make of it. Really. Really truly.

 _Woman, you don't have to make anything of it._ She clicked her tongue. She closed out of the tab, checked the time, then went to Twitter for a quick check up. _Just be thankful Keith hasn’t seen the message himself, yet._

On Twitter, a lonely DM sat waiting for her.

“You _must_ be joking.”

Allura didn't think she could ever get tired of seeing Keith’s name, but she was getting pretty sick of having her resting heart rate resemble a rollercoaster.

Kindly, succinctly, the message for her read: > _Hey, is this Allura?_

Which gave Allura far too many ways to respond. She didn’t even wonder why he had reached out. Why then of all times? A certain brand of numbness washed over her, letting the unrealness of her situation completely overwhelm.

She went the kind and succinct route and hoped for the best.

_> Yes it is. Keith Kogane, I presume?_

Immediately he responded.

_> Yep. So, a while ago, did you get a comment on a video from an asshole called “the handsomest of the bunch?”_

Ah.

So Keith did see the message.

Shite.

_> I absolutely did. How did you know?_

Not as immediate, almost hesitantly, Keith replies.

_> Goddamn it. _

Curiouser and curiouser. Allura couldn't _not_ know what that meant.

_> Do you… know this person?_

Keith said, > _You watch my videos, right?_

Allura said, > _Of course._

He said, > _You remember the ASMR one?_

Allura said, > _I do._

She didn’t quite know where it was going. She didn’t know how the conversation had gotten to that point how quickly it did but… she wasn’t complaining.

Until Keith asked > _You remember one of my camera guys, Lance?_

Allura gasped deeply. She wanted to say she couldn’t believe it, but with a face like Lance’s and even the brief cameos he’s made on Keith’s show; Allura totally could.

She said, > _Oh I see._

Lamely Keith finished: > _Yeah._

“Yeah.”

Allura was so close, she’s talking finger-pinching close to walking away from the chat and closing out of the tab altogether to hyperventilate to herself and let herself go to a fantasy frenzy, when suddenly, Keith added an amendment.

_> He’s been trying to screw with me for a while now. If you’ve noticed a lot of likes on your Twitter and Youtube, it was probably him. Sorry about…_

-Keith waited a good long while,

_> …that._

To which Allura audibly laughed.

_> No worries! I confess, I suspected something more was going on so I’m glad to have that mystery solved._

And she was, genuinely relieved. Allura loved it when she was right. However relieved she was, she didn't want the conversation to stop there. By powers and ways unknown to her, her relief turned punch-drunk. Her punch-drunk turned to bravery. In her bravery, she felt cheeky and limitless and thought _when am I ever going to have the chance to speak directly to the Keith Kogane again?_

Her hands shook. Her hair raised like an agitated Miyazaki heroine.

Her mind and heart and soul _raced._

She said:

_> Though I guess this means we have our first- what do the kids call it these days? Shipper?_

Allura would have paid cash money to see Keith’s reaction.

He haltingly replied:

_> I mean, kind of. He’s weird._

He stopped.

Continued.

_> Like I said, he keeps trying to screw with me. I told him not to do all that stuff but looking back at it, I’m just glad he didn’t leave comments or retweet any of your stuff without permission._

Backtracked.

_> Not that i think your stuff is bad. i like your posts and stuff, i think you’re really intelligent and clever. i do like your videos._

Brought himself a shovel to dig himself a bigger hole.

_> And not that it’s like bad or anything to be your boyfriend or be “shipped” with you or whatever that’s not what I was trying to say. i think you’re a cool person. i mean i don’t know you but in your videos you seem really cool. Sorry, sorry. i’m still just irritated with Lance. i didn’t mean to dump this all on you_

Allura couldn’t stop her red-faced giggles even if she tried. In hopes to assure Keith’s troubled mind, she typed:

_> It’s quite alright! I really wasn’t bothered by Lance’s antics. Not in any way that would bother me more than a few minutes. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive him, I think he’s really quite harmless._

She could hear Keith’s tempered whisper from across the screens and distance separating them.

_> i’m glad one of us thinks so_

There seemed like the natural end to their conversation. Honestly speaking, Allura could have spoken with Keith all day. She really did hope he forgave Lance. She wanted to know, she envisioned so hard the expressions Keith’s face would make if they were to have their conversation face to face.

 _It’s funny._ The giggles, the glee, the grin on her face; none of them could she stop. _He types with the same passion then calm as he does when he records._

Allura let herself close out of the tab before she got even more lost into what was supposed to be a quick update. As she walked away from her computer to resume her day, she thought that that was the beginning of something curious and unapologetically beautiful. She knew her conversation with Keith would be replayed time after time again in her head.

At last, Allura let her hopes up to the clouds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think i'll end this next chapter. but it'll be good. i promise
> 
> ((((I Hope))))
> 
> Oh on another note, my favorite YT mua right now is sichenmakeupholic. obviously she looks nothing like Allura, but i get the feeling hers would be the kind of videos Allura would make. very cleverly and professionally edited. (Desi Perkins, Allie Glines and Amanda Ensing are other favorites of mine as well.) While we're on the subject of youtubers I watch, I am just, mid to actually like unreasonably high key addicted to the Try Guys videos. So naturally i hc Keith's videos having the same vibe. 
> 
> i could talk more about the stuff that happens in the fic that happens outside the writing (like how many views keith gets on his ASMR vid or how Shiro and Lance are involved in his channel and Stuff) but i didn't want to clog up these notes any more than i already have


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic has shifted from being a self-insert piece about my daydreams where i meet MatPat or w/e, to a self fix-it fic where i actually say all the right things at all the right times @ whatthebodygraspsnot 
> 
> :))
> 
>  
> 
> ((side note, sorry to any 7th graders reading this fic, but do remember, i too was a 7th grader myself (((not even all that long ago :v ))))))
> 
> double side note, i hope you have picked up by now that any and all usernames or handles that keith has were given to him by Lance's and Pidge's trolling. keith's not a Huge Fan of the names, but he doesn't care enough to change them. thought i'd throw in that little bit for you~

The concordance went back and forth.

For every video posted, Allura received another like from Keith’s channel. Some Instagram photos got a delightful little comment. (Each one never failed to make her heart race and her grin buttery.) Fewer still, but ever the more precious, Keith would retweet something of hers for all his loyal fans to see. Allura would be more concerned about the retweeting situation had not his own fanbase been so delightful as hers, as well.

It was during the cusp of the semester’s end going into summer that Allura’s content-making and social media dropped to an all-time low. Coincidentally, it was the time that the fans’ commentary reached an all-time high. It was also at that time that Allura wondered _when did I start calling The Keith Kogane just_ Keith?

She wondered if it was okay. She wondered if she really had any grounds to. She knew that she and Keith had gone back and forth… kind of. A bit. Sort of. Once. It was there. But ever since that one conversation those few months ago, they hadn’t maintained any long dialogues. Nothing more substantial than mutual likes or an odd comment.

Was it fair that Allura simply was not satisfied with the mere… mutual nods of recognition they threw at each other? No doubt she still got flustered when she saw notifications carrying his crest but, how far could she assume the familiarity?

_You’re calling him Keith in your_ mind! _How “familiar” could you even be?_ _You’ve never even spoken face to face! Besides, what else are you going to call him? The Keith Kogane? Still?_

Regardless, Allura found herself in the precarious predicament of More wanting again. She found herself wanting to know. Allura wanted to know just how much Lance teased Keith about reacting to Allura’s content. She just had to know what Keith himself actually thought about it. She wanted to know how a fuller conversation would last between them without the awkward meddling of a third party. Above all, she had to know… What would it take for her to know Keith better?

During the pre-summer’s heated workload, Allura kept her nose to the ground. Worked her tail off. Her tunnel vision had never become more narrow, but she finished the work she _had_ to, to return to the work she _wanted_. As far as her social media went, she kept mum. There was barely enough time to record and post her own videos, much less comment or like anybody else’s. (Even a certain conspiracy campaign's videos.) The couple months leading up and through the summer season barely allowed her time to sleep.

Any “familiarizing” efforts with Keith were completely put on hold.

Allura’s videos shortened and shortened under the season’s and school’s oppression. She couldn’t bear to sacrifice quantity for quality, so duration became the frostbitten leg to sever. Her fans quickly noticed. They begged and pleaded and demanded she returned, while she was still caught under the stormy tides of Hurricane Homework. At times she felt flattered by their missing her. Other times she felt vexed at her fans’ demands. In her vexation she had to remember how mind-boggling it truly was that she had fans in the first place. 70K subscribers, no less!

She remembered how bereft she felt after just one video of reviewing her favorite runways, the viewer and subscriber count skyrocketed. Amongst the rest of everything happening in her life at that time, it only felt like something else to overwhelm her. Balance kept threatening to slip out of her hands, so she made cuts where she could. She took deep breaths, walked away when her audience overwhelmed, then returned when she could. The summer madness between school, work and _everything_ pulled her away more than she wanted, but the moment she felt like she reached a good spot in her Lives’ balance, she informed her ravenous fanbase about her goings on.

When she did, she was met with only praise. And then, at the semester’s end, she rose and emerged and ascended more than ever before.

At the end of the long, (unforgivably, inconceivably long) tunnel she finally saw the light. She closed her books. She put down her pencils. She laid herself down to sleep and the grumblings and whines of her roommates were finally silenced. Little did her roommates know just how simmering Allura’s resurgence was effervescing.

The guiding light looked suspiciously red; like the red of her camera’s recording light. Allura’s light at the end of the tunnel was an all-consuming black; like laying herself down into deep, dreamless sleep.

With Allura’s resurgence came posts and videos and pictures with frequency never before seen. Ludicrous, was it really. Without the encumbrance of school, work thought it only proper to drag her in by her ponytail and claim more of her waking hours. Though it may have seemed so, it was hardly a problem for her.

_After all,_ she smiled as her hand kept busy and her feet walked light- _I get to go home to my camera._

At times she hit creative snags. How did she balance her cosmetics to her clothing videos? Should she delve into the world of wellness? Not that she practiced much of it, anyway. What fashion and make up looks should she try out? How should she best budget her time and money?

Undercurrent of all the snags, she encountered a voice buzzing steadily louder. It nagged her about all the free time she was squandering. It chided her that while she was doing so much, she wasn’t doing enough. It poked and prodded at all the courage she wasn’t showing. All the apprehension she rationed herself to follow. At times it got so loud Allura wondered if it even was really an arbitrary “inner voice”, her lizard brain, or her adamant though dearly departed mother.

The voice kept telling her to

“ _Bloody talk to Keith already, you silly girl!_ ”

Really, that thought could have easily come from any one of a great number of sources.

Allura couldn’t believe it, but it had grown so loud she began to amuse it. She rebutted the voice’s nagging:

_What would I even talk to him about?_

Whip-snap quick it replied.

_Anything! Everything! You want to be friends, don’t you!_

To that, denial was slow. Luckily for her superego, her reasoning had been stockpiling for months.

_What if_ he _doesn’t want to be friends? What if he just wanted to apologize for his meddling friend, which by the way, he’s already done?_

Back and forth, she and the voice went.

_Enough with the what-ifs,_ it said with far too much clarity to be her lizard brain. _What do you have to lose?_

Allura knew that realistically, she had little more to lose than her pride. Unfortunately for all the sides of her ‘sonas, her pride was far to be moved.

_Isn’t it strange and odd that some random strange would want to talk with him more? We’ve already said everything that’s needed said._

The Voice said, _apparently not everything._

It said, _you’re not a stranger. You’re no longer just a fan._

It said, asked again, challenged Allura _really truly. What do you have to lose?_

Still still still, the back and forth continued. It strung along with her while she packed her things from her college dorm. (As Allura packed, she couldn’t help noticing the indiscreet sighs of relief in the eyes of her roommates. They couldn’t wait to be rid of her fast enough.) The voice persisted and poked and prodded on her drive all the way back home to her father’s house. What was supposed to be a fun and refreshing reprieve while staying with her father, turned her to a bowing green hut under the _bloody stupid voice!_

It came to the point where her father noticed her prickly attitude. Of course it didn’t take very long or very much effort for him, astute as her father Alfor was.

After their first evening’s dinner together, he laid his great hand on her shoulder. Allura would have thought that _he_ were the burdened one, judging by the tone of his voice.

“My daughter. What is wrong? Do you… want to talk about it?”

Oh dear Alfor. Allura knew he tried to channel her mother’s tender, attentive voice. If only it were something she needed thorough talking through. Truthfully, she’d already talked herself through it. Too bad her conclusions were still only head knowledge. But if Allura’s father had caught on, then maybe it really was time to do something about it. Turn her head knowledge to heart knowledge.

To simply reach out and contact Keith,

_What do you have to lose?_

For one thing, Allura lost a great deal of peace of mind. She didn’t know if she should reach out to him via Youtube, via Twitter, via Instagram. Half-second doubts and anxieties prevented her from swiping her finger over the mouse pad like before.

_Where is your fear even coming from? It’s not like you haven’t done this more than 30 times before!_

More than 30 times? No. Allura backtracked.

_It’s not like you haven’t talked with Keith directly… once before._

She implored the spirit of her mother to dwell over her, to embolden her with bravery.

_What do you have to be afraid of?_

Allura wanted to know the answer to that question, as well.

_You want to be friends, don’t you?_

Allura did, though she didn’t know how to react to the juvenileness of that phrasing.

_What do you have to lose?_

Before the blue light of her laptop monitor, the only thing Allura knew she was losing was time.

To The Keith- ah. No.

Just Keith.

To Keith’s direct messaging, Allura sent her sentiments. Something short, sweet. Innocuous. A few minutes after sending it, she forgot what she had written, herself. But no matter.

She did it!

She reached out!

And that night when she laid herself down to sleep, the voice in her head and the expression on her face fell into slumber with a wide smile.

 

—

 

Keith was a gentleman. He spared Allura the worries of “did he get the message??” or “what if he received message after message in his inbox and didn’t see mine?” Of course, never forgetting the staple “what if he just doesn’t want to reply?”

Keith spared Allura all of that grief. To her short little hello of:

> _Hello, Keith. I hope I’m not bothering you, but I had a question._

Yes, yes, she knew just how closely the syntax of her message read like an email, and she was tempted to write out her question on the first message, but she knew she could keep the intrigue by letting Keith make the next move. When Allura woke up the next morning to check her social media, she was greeted most assuredly. (Rewarded for her “bravery” most handsomely.)

To Allura’s (not actually very) little message, Keith left a (yes actually) little message of:

> _What’s up?_

The woman’s smile was bright and infectious. She felt it spread from each corner of her lips all the way up to the corners of her eyes. She could hardly believe her luck; 2 for 2! After she got over her giddiness, fanned away the redness of her face, she replied.

> _Did you start your channel while in college? I have and it is so hard balancing filming and schoolwork. How do you find the balance!_

Allura had to have caught him at a good time because she saw the three little dots blinking, signaling that he was replying as she looked at her phone on the bed.

> _I started getting into filming in college, but I waited to make my channel until I graduated._

She was going to respond when he stopped there, but it turned out that he still had more to say.

_> That’s amazing that you’re making videos every week on top of doing college. They’re always so high-quality._

The grey dots didn’t blink again. Unconsciously, Keith opened the precisely perfect segway for Allura to guide their conversation. She tucked her knees up close to her chest, tilted her chin down to her phone as she wrapped her arms up tight. She didn’t know if she could smile any wider as she typed back to him.

> _Why thank you! I’ve been trying to be attentive to the videos you react to most often- I need to know how to appeal to not only a female demographic :P_

Was the :P too… much? Allura thought the :P wasn’t too much. Only time would tell if the :P was too much to throw in too soon.

And you know, maybe the cheekiness was too much too soon if Keith’s lack of reply was anything to go by. Sure the little dotties were fading in and out, though no words were coming through. Was he typing his reply and deleting again? If the :P came too soon then she knew a double-message was absolutely out of the picture.

After a few more minutes, Keith seemed to settle on

> _No, your videos are great. You don’t need to change anything, I know I’m not the target audience._

It was a fine message, it was okay, nothing life-altering. Unfortunately, it did leave Allura in a bit of a pickle as to how to move her chess piece next.

Emboldened by the ever-present memory of her mother, in a sudden spark of attitude and stewing coquettishness, she sent:

> _Ahhh. Now I wonder, am I the demographic for the kind of videos you make?_

Before she could blink, Keith said

> _No._

Allura couldn’t help herself from raising a brow, distancing herself from her phone.

> _Oh?_

She said, > _Who then is your usual “demographic”?-_ and hoped she didn’t sound as petty as she did in her head.

Keith took it in stride.

> _They uh,_

**_. . ._ **

The grey dots blinked. Blinked some more. Just a few more seconds.

> _I don’t think any of them can do a “wing” as well as you do._

To that, Allura snickered. So that’s how it was.

> _Well I’d hope so! I don’t want the students to surpass the master quite yet._

In her heart and hopes, she saw far in the distance where Keith was typing his own reply, that she caused just a little grin on his face.

> _LOL, yeah you’re right_

By the time the two finished their conversation, Allura knew her bed would be all rucked up. Between all the leg kicking and shifting and, frankly _squeeing_ (what was she, a 7th grader?) that she was doing, the comforter was already getting rumpled as she typed.

For Allura, it felt like she and Keith spent the rest of the morning typing and laughing it away. It was lighthearted, fancy-free. It was comfortable, while Keith’s occasional dorkiness turned its head every now and again which made Allura laugh out loud. It was everything completely within and totally outside of her fantasies.

When at last their conversation came to a close, she felt almost like she got done eating a rich, decadent meal. She felt warm and sated and happy.

She felt like she should have listened to the nagging voices sooner.

 

—

 

After their auspicious second conversation, Allura and Keith kept in contact on a near-daily basis. Sometimes their chats lasted for interspersed hours at a time, other times they simply exchanged a meme or two throughout the whole day. With each message exchanged, she could feel herself growing out of her preconceived hero-worship of Keith, and fell deeper into fondness of him as a person.

Sometimes, they took their messages public.

 

**Beauty Boudoir**

I think Lance is having far too much fun on this episode. He can barely hold the camera still with his shaking hand, he’s laughing too hard!

 

Allura commented on a vlog-style reaction video Keith posted.

 

**Kogane’s Conspiracy Campaign**

i didn’t know you watched telenovelas but… it fits

 

Keith commented on a fashion shopping haul Allura uploaded.

 

 

**@mostAlluring**

I thought with all the fashion tutorials I posted, you would know better than to match your ties to your Hawaiian shirts. To ANY Hawaiian shirts!! @keefsghostreef

 

Allura had teased after Keith shared a photo of an incriminating fashion choice.

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

if you’re going to binge anything, why not long haul paranormal ice road ghost truckers? they’re already on season 23

 

Keith had suggested after a cozy picture of Allura on a night in, deliberating which show she wanted to watch next.

 

The correspondence went back and forth. Their public messages were mostly encouragements and acknowledgements of each others’ videos. Neither Keith nor Allura were shy about calling the other out on their idiosyncrasies. Their little strange habits. Truthfully, their public messages didn’t stray widely from their conversations held privately. Allura still felt thrilled, regardless. She got excited when she saw notifications from Keith. She felt, dare she say it, special. To be one fan out of so many many that Keith actually bothered to maintain interaction with? Oh, Allura was over the moon.

So too were their fans.

At first when Allura started picking up speed with talking to Keith, she thought she would be bombarded with the ugliness of the human condition. No longer did she keep Keith on a pedestal, but even so, it didn’t make his popularity any less. Because of such popularity, Allura expected nastygrams and vile green jealousy. She was fully prepared to take drastic measures as far as abstaining from her social media. Thankfully, it never came down to that. Not even close. Not even in the same realm or reality of close.

When The Fans started seeing Allura’s comments being pinned on Keith’s videos and her url being mentioned more and more, their actual response filled Allura’s assumptions with shame. Negativity was anywhere to be found. If anything, Keith’s fellow conspirators and Allura’s faithful makeupholics were overwhelmingly encouraging. _Overwhelmingly_ encouraging.Too encouraging. Like, to the point where Allura would rather not have that much encouragement towards someone she’s never met, kind of encouraging.

The summer was only burned halfway through when Allura started really rethinking her life choices. After she and Keith started really chatting and he re-pinned or retweeted her comments, their eager audience held their own commentary on the fringes. More and more Allura saw comments in the vein of “i’m here cause Kogane’s Conspiracy Campgain sent me here!”. She saw them on her channel and Keith’s, alike.

She didn’t know how to feel.

Those comments were by far the most plentiful. At first, at least. When summer started progressing into its third trimester, the comments took a decided shift. Less and less where the “i were sent here” messages, more and more became the “yo… she talks a *lot* about keith’s conspiracy channel in her vids. honestly, i kinda ship it” messages. They were no longer instigated by “ _the handsomest of the bunch_ ”, so Allura couldn’t even bring the issue to Keith. …If it even was an issue.

Was Keith bothered by those kinds of messages? The ones where they both received comments on their own channels where literal strangers thought they would look cute together. ( _Did they really think so?_ ) They were no longer strangers to comments saying that they _should just get together already_ and how it was _so cute how she talks about him all the time,_ speculating about _what if they’re in a secret relationship already???? WAKE UP SHEEPLE_

Did he think he was being heckled? Goodness, did he agree? A little tendril of jealousy began wrapping around Allura’s heart when she thought about him receiving those kinds of messages before. Was it wrong of her to want to consider herself special? She herself hadn’t been following Keith’s channel for very long; what if it was all just in a day’s work for him?

Allura was quick to learn that her pride had met its match.

For even stronger than her pride that wouldn’t let her reach out to Keith first, her incendiary _jealousy_ would not let her resist. It commanded that she knew the truth of the matter, to see just how Keith felt about all of the goings on.

To that command, the lady was much more readily acquiescent.

 

—

 

Within just a scant few months, Allura had slipped herself into a comfortable, expectant chat log with her idol turned friend. She had been starstruck that such an intriguing man with such a soothing voice would ever give her the time of day. Blinded by her own imposed worship, she did not think herself deserving of Keith’s attention. After they got to talking and she got no know the man, she realized her folly. It was never about “deserving”. Not at all. No matter how “small” or popular Allura’s channel was. She was still a person behind her make up. Keith was still a person after all his conspiracies.

It wasn’t about being deserving of Keith’s attention, but Allura still finds it amazing that Keith had taken a chance on a perfect stranger. And it was perfect, really.

_Because now Keith has become someone much different… and more._

 

**@mostAlluring**

Long Haul Paranormal Ice Road Ghost Truckers was amazing!!! Thank you for recommending. I’m already on season 3 if you can believe it 

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

glad u liked. i’m about to finish, but i’ll try not to spoil anything for u

 

**@mostAlluring**

Why thank you, that would be most appreciated :3

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

i’ll try to spare u from what i experienced when i first started watching it. my dad and i watched it together when i was still a kid and sometimes he would see episodes before me. he would spoil the whole thing before i even knew a new episode was coming out

 

**@mostAlluring**

Oh no!!

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

oh yeah. when the show started getting more seasons he was part of this like, online forum for people to talk about the show. sometimes… the comments that people left

 

**@mostAlluring**

I can only imagine!

**. . .**

But, speaking of comments, I wanted to ask you something

**. . .**

If that’s alright!

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

what’s up?

 

**@mostAlluring**

It may not even be an issue, you may have already encountered this before, but especially considering how new my channel is I’ve never experienced it

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

**. . .**

What’s going on? Is someone harassing you?

 

**@mostAlluring**

No, no no! Nothing like that! As a matter of fact, I was more wondering if you may have seen it as someone harassing you

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

uh, no? not that i really remember? like yeah sure there are idiot comments sometimes but that’s nothing new

 

**@mostAlluring**

Thankfully I haven’t had to encounter those too much, (yet :P) but I was meaning more of the

**. . .**

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

**. . .**

…the?

 

**@mostAlluring**

Yes, the… hm. How should I put them.

**. . .**

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

i don’t think i know what you’re talking about

 

**@mostAlluring**

oh I’m quite sure you do

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

i do?

 

**@mostAlluring**

Yes! Sure you do! The bloody comments I’ve been seeing all the time, saying how we should get together and date or how we already are and we’re just keeping it a secret from everybody! /THOSE/ messages!

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

**. . .**

oh

**. . .**

those ones

 

**@mostAlluring**

Yes, those ones. I just wanted to know if you’re in any way bothered by them or… I don’t know, if you’ve ever encountered them before.

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

No

 

**@mostAlluring**

No? No you’re not uncomfortable oooorr, no you haven’t encountered them before?

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

i mean, no i’ve never had those kinds of messages before

**. . .**

at all

 

**@mostAlluring**

Ah. I see. Okay. Well then

**. . .**

This will be a new experience for us both, then.

That’s fine, that’s great!

Still though, don’t the messages bother you at all? I mean, we still don’t really know each other all that well

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

**. . .**

**. . .**

**. . .**

i mean no,

 

**@mostAlluring**

That’s good, then!

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

they don’t make me

uncomfortable

exactly

 

**@mostAlluring**

?

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

i know lance did it cause he was being a jerk and he wanted to embarrass me but when he commented on your vid he roped you into it, too but

if he didn’t i don’t know if i would have talked to you like this so

i guess i should

thank?

him

??

 

**@mostAlluring**

For… being a jerk?

 

**@KeefsGhostReef**

for really starting this whole thing and

letting me meet you

 

—

 

Allura couldn’t say whether their relationship skyrocketed or not after that. It surely hadn’t stagnated. She wasn’t about to profess her undying love to Keith because… there was nothing of that sort to confess.

Yet.

She was sure.

Allura didn’t know quite what to call it, but she was convinced that their relationship took on a different kind of _flair_ after discussing the romance-centric comments with him. Truthfully, Allura couldn’t say she minded.

When she saw the very next day, just scrolling through her Instagram feed as she normally did, that Keith showed a progress update on a cosplay for a con he was going to (since when did he go to _conventions?_ ), that was altogether startlingly close to where Allura lived…

Well.

Allura knew exactly what to make of it. She only hoped that Keith wouldn’t mind, himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((i'm sorry guys. I have to apologize. In my mind my writing is one way, and when I actually sit down to type it, it is nowhere near that. I have an expectation of where I want my writing to be and I really feel like I can reach it but for whatever reason I just can't do it. It's so frustrating. I want to be able to deliver for both myself and y'all actually reading my stuff but u G H man do I crave the writing abilities of like 5 other people just off the top of my head. Thanks for sticking around. ))


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> keith's pov ';)
> 
>  
> 
> (((oh, and you know a silly little meeting happens nbd, happens everyday))))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me when people say they enjoy my writing: *surprised pikachu face * :o

Keith didn’t know if he was more sensitive to the supernatural because others pushed him away, or if others pushed him away because he was so sensitive to the supernatural. (It could have been because his mom left him, but he likes to think that he was already naturally less trusting.) When he was young he would have gotten bullied for his strange “hobby” had he not known the power his words and his fists could pack. His teachers never smiled on the “using his fists before his words” method but he always walked away unscathed, so he liked to think he was the real winner.

Some ghosts he talked to were kind. Some were sad. Some ghosts were lonely or angry or wanted nothing to do with Keith. Even when he was young, he professed to always sensing them around him. Even as an adult he still communed with them. With the help of technology he communicated with them better than ever, but as an adult, people around him still didn't really get it. Not his friends. Not his classmates. Not his old coworkers. Not even his current coworkers really, and they’re the very ones supporting his cause.

Pidge got it the most, even if Keith was sometimes suspicious that she was patronizing him. Pidge, Keith knew from an online forum they both joined years ago.

_Though she be but small, she is fierce._

She was the one who proposed Keith’s current… occupation in the first place. They had lived states away until fate, destiny, cosmic dust, lucrative job offers led Pidge to live only counties away from Keith. They reconvened at one of his campus’s cafes, hit it off in person like they’d never _not_ been and became thicker than thieves.

Pidge and Keith spent long nights together setting up their conspiracy and cryptid site. Each week they researched and wrote about any new creatures or news they found, then published their findings as a sort of expansion on the forum where they first met. Together they cultivated a following of their own, racking up fans and subscribers on a steady incline. Together they celebrated milestones and shot the breeze and grew closer with every entry they wrote. They spent so much time together in fact, they tried the boyfriend girlfriend thing and.

It didn’t end well.

The next few months after their break up was awkward, tangibly tense, though not unbearable. Granted, it was still plenty unpleasant. Keith began to wonder just how long things would be strained between them. It wasn’t until the 4th month mark that the tension finally dissolved. The dissolving agent’s name was Lance.

Keith began to notice a trend with Pidge’s friends, seeing as she and Lance had also met on an online forum. However tumultuous their relationship began they seemed to be all the stronger for it. He could see how Pidge and Lance could work off each other’s energy and commiserate each other. All Keith could say about Lance was that he definitely had never met anyone like Lance before.

At the 5th month mark after the breakup, Lance persuaded (needled, bribed, pleaded with) Pidge to join him in LA. He didn’t get her to move in LA proper, but both compromised that northern California would be close enough. Pidge, by extension, shared Lance’s persuasions to Keith.

“ _You’d be closer to me! We could hang out all the time. Think of all the engineering you guys could get your hands on. You guys could also do your site here just as easily! Man, everything and anything happens over here. You’d probably get an even bigger following if you came, honestly. What do you have to lose?”_ said Lance, allegedly, word for word.

With fate and destiny and cosmic dust working so intricately like that, how could Keith refuse?

(And honestly, what _did_ Keith have to lose? He knew Lance must have had a hell of a time convincing Pidge to do something so revolutionary like picking up her entire life on a whim. Then again, she had been looking for change and itching to _get out_ for a while now, so maybe it was exactly what she needed. Guess it didn’t really matter if they both bent to Lance’s begging.)

At the 6th month mark, Keith became so overwhelmed with picking up and moving his entire life to a state days and days away, he could barely keep his head on straight. He had even less time to think about the strain between himself and Pidge anymore.

It was at the 6th month mark that he confidently declared himself over his devastation. It wasn’t like he and Pidge weren’t still friends. It wasn’t like they weren’t still cryptid hunting together. It wasn’t like he wasn’t going to care for anyone ever again, and at 6 months, he stopped quantifying the changing times against the break up.

He couldn’t afford to think that way if he was going to pick up, move his life, and expect it to not fall to pieces. He had no room for self-doubts, knowing that the world was already against him.

_Even more so when I go out west._

He had no time to waste, not if his little home on the internet was actually going to go anywhere.

 

—

 

Keith liked to accredit his brother Shiro as being the real backbone to what would have easily been just another stupid Youtube channel. Pidge held the camera and recorded Lance’s narrations and commentary against Keith’s ghost huntings and theory threads, but Shiro? Shiro… held it all together. After he found his way to Keith’s motley crew, Pidge and Lance refused to let him go. That was alright with Keith. Shiro made sure all of Keith’s theories were actually legitimate. Shiro was right there with Pidge helping set up lightning, cameras, then stayed for the red-eyed nights of editing. Shirowas right by Lance’s side, making sure his commentary never went too far.

Shiro was also the bastard that charged the stupid _He Man Hey ghost_ video. Keith had explicitly stated he didn’t want those clips or even that _encounter_ going on the channel. Not only did Shiro, Lance and Pidge outright ignore Keith, they compiled and edited a full-length video behind his back.

Keith felt embarrassed entertaining that particular ghost, but after watching the video, he could see why Shiro would be so adamant about getting it produced. Unsurprisingly enough (to everyone but Keith,) that video ended up being a lot of his new audience’s introduction to Keith’s channel at large.

Shiro was self-satisfied. Lance was smug. Pidge was rolling in all the monetization their video brought in and Keith thought nothing more of it. They churned out videos just like they always did. The channel was never a top trender, but Keith was grateful for it. His relative secrecy made him feel more comfortable with branching out on video content, as opposed to exclusively vlogging ghosts or cryptids.

On the other side with their rising popularity, they no longer had to beg people to help out with their channel. In fact, quite the opposite. The first time Keith was pulled aside on the street to be in a fan’s photo was _jarring_ to say the least. In that same week, Pidge, Lance, Shiro and Keith walked into the studio with 3 people calling to offer their services to the channel.

The Kogane Conspiracy Campaign was in a groove. Their schedule was locked tight. They were an oiled machine.

It wasn’t until she commented that it began to sputter.

 

—

 

It wasn’t like what she posted was anything unwelcome or uncomfortable. It wasn't even like she had said anything he hadn’t heard before. He knew that was probably arrogant to say, but after the 300th time hearing the same general message, the repetition started to wear on the soul.

That was, of course, until Allura(or the _Beauty Boudoir_ commented on Keith’s video almost 2 years after he had actually posted the one particular video and managed to sound so… that way… about it. Keith wanted to call it polite, the way Allura’s comment read.. Couth was another good contender. While those and more adjectives could describe the pleasantness by which Allura commented, none of them managed to fully describe the feeling that evoked in Keith when he read it.

Because boy did he read it.

And read it.

And read it.

And reread it.

And read it again.

 

**Beauty Boudoir**

 

_Thank you for singing to the poor ghost. I hate to think how remiss we’d all be if you denied us all such a favor. Let me be honest when I say that if you ever did ASMR, I’d absolutely watch!_

 

Keith knew it wasn’t going to be the last time he’d receive a comment like it, telling him to try ASMR or even sing a song while ghost hunting just for the heck of it. He knew it wasn't the last time he would be asked, but it was without contest the first time he gave the idea any thought.

Any thought at all.

It was strange for Keith. Without contest.

It was strange, so of course Lance was the first to call him out on it. Pidge may have been the first to notice Keith's strange lingering over this one comment but it wasn’t Pidge who told his former college roommate whose name was Hunk all about it. It wasn't Pidge that shared the same love or _need_ to gossip about all facets of Keith’s life as his former college roommate, who was Hunk. Noo, that was all Lance. (And coincidentally, Hunk.)

Lance was all up in arms because this Allura commenter (Beauty Boudoir- yes that was her channel name, yes she was a beauty blogger yes Keith went to her channel to click her bio and learn her name _do you mind, Lance-_ ) had liked his He Man Hey ghost video.

But then he actually replied.

Nothing Keith didn’t hear before. But that time, when The Allura Beauty Boudoir commented, it actually mattered.

Pidge may have been the first to notice, it totally was Lance first to blab, but it was Shiro who actually put the suggestion out there.

Takashi Shirogane, co-executive producer with the Keith Conspiracy Campaign after moving to Cali to help Keith operate his stupid little Youtube home on the internet, decided that watching over his baby bro and help _film his footage_ and _edit his videos_ and practically _chaperone his nights out with his_ ** _friends_** was simply not enough Big Bro Always Watching (little bro).

No, Shiro said,

“You should do it.”

Keith said,

“Do what?”

Pidge was in the editing room with them at the time, hearing it all go down out of the corner of her eye. She had snorted without ever lifting her gaze.

Shiro said to Keith’s blank-faced balking,

“You should make the video.”

Keith didn’t want to give up the ghost quite yet so he had replied,

“What video.”

Lance, who was also in the room at time, groaned as he rolled his eyes so far back they reached the heavens.

Shiro ignored them all.

“Don’t be coy. Make the ASMR video. You know you want to. I don’t know why you haven’t already, you've been obsessing over… the…” he squinted his eyes towards the screen which had The Comment displayed front and center, yet again. “…the ‘beauty boudoir’ for too long. Too long, Keith."

Lance’s cat-call of _you sure have, buddy!_ was further unappreciated on top of Shiro’s meddling.

Already fed up by his co-workers’ (could they even truly be his friends, anymore?) antics,Keith proposed an option to the room at large.

“If I make this video, will all of you get off my back?”

The room at large responded with a resolute and resounding _yes._

It wasn’t the first time Keith Kogane had been propositioned to make a video with his voice be the sole focus.

But that time, when the Beauty Boudoir commented, he actually flippin’ _did_ it.

 

—

 

Keith couldn’t explain the allure he kept feeling towards A- … Allura. When pressed by Lance, Keith couldn’t explain it like his ghost huntings. The connection he had to her wasn't a lonely or a desperate last measure to find peace. He commiserated with ghosts, sure. He knew they commiserated with him, definitely. Still, none of the other ghosts or spirits or anything ever compelled him to come back.

Whether it was another comment or a video she posted or photo she shared, she kept leaving Keith coming back for more. The best way Keith could explain it was that he had this ever-growing suspicion that Allura’s involvement in Keith’s life was going to be a big deal. He didn’t know how. He didn't know why.

Turned out, Lance’s gossip-loving, poor secret-keeping diary-snooping former college roommate hit the nail on the head most.

“ _Allura’s never treated you quite like a fan. She’s always treated you like a friend.”_

Even over the audio warping of Lance’s laptop, Hunk’s words during their video chat would be _slow_ forgotten. When the chat was over, Keith couldn’t help but think back to the very first video that Allura ever commented.

After that video, it was all uphill from there. It was a slow incline at first. Regardless of the comfort that Allura brought whenever she and Keith spoke, he couldn’t help but feel like their conversations were kinda awkward. He had no doubts in his mind it was all him. Every time they spoke, there was another demon saying that he’d really blown it that time. That it was the last time she’d ever come back around and that he should have savored it more. With every little gesture Allura made (like a a silly like on his video or anything, really), that voice was silenced more. Time and time again, Allura kept impressing him with her patience and sheer genuineness that she wanted to get to know him.

Then Lance had to go and screw it all up with his _handsomest of the bunch_ comment and Keith could not have cringed harder if he tried. He personally apologized to Allura for his workplace associate’s behavior, but the damage was already done. Once Lance had put the idea out into the world, Keith had to admit that it crossed his mind more than once.

 _Being a couple with Allura. What_ would _that be like?_

The thought came, and he forced it to quickly go. Forgetting the fact that Keith had never even met the woman in his life, barely knew how old she was and hadn’t even spoken with her for a full year- he didn’t know if his heart could take it.

_What if she-_

No.

_What if I-_

No.

He refused to let his mind be so wholly consumed like it was when he started counting the months after his break up. It was just as bad as when he… first got Allura’s first message.

Keith was under the impression that any time is a bad time to be consumed by thoughts of women (unless you’re Lance), but at that time it was especially lousy.

_I have to prepare for this con!_

Keith’s cosplay for the upcoming convention didn’t take extraordinary effort, but he was going fully hand-made. As in, not like Shiro who thought buying a wig on eBay and buying a costume on Amazon counted as a proper cosplay. He wanted to do it right. He also wanted to give himself a bit of a reprieve from all the back to back filming and editing. The con’s quickly approaching date did light a fire under his butt that did singe him a few times, though.

It wasn’t any of the logistics or the details or the hard numbers he was stressed about. The greatest battle he knew he was going to have to face was the mental preparation. For his other booth; his fan’s long awaited meet and greet.

 

—

 

Shiro made Keith post updates immeasurable on all of the channel’s social media. There was a coercive attempt to get him to post on his personal accounts too, but there was a line. Sure Keith wanted fans, but he didn't want followers. _Followers_ , you know.

The week before the convention, the Kogane Conspiracy Campaign clan finally locked down the times for their meet and greet.

6 days before the convention, they took a group photo to help boost their hype.

5 days before the convention, Lance made up his mind about his own cosplay: he was going to go as a college kid.

“A college kid? Didn’t you graduate last year?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. But here’s the catch- I’m financially stable.”

“Please stay within the budget, Lance.”

4 days before the convention, Keith managed to brush out his entire wig without either of his arms falling off.

3 days before, Keith asked Shiro to see how many people online were talking about meeting them. He was too scared to do it himself. His brother told him not to worry about it.

2 days before, it was all Keith could do to drag himself out of bed and make some tea and flip on the TV in meagre combatting against his catatonic anxiety.

The day before, Shiro’s wig came in the mail. The crew packed up their suitcases. They loaded up a van with light video equipment, said a quick prayer, pushed a mixtape in the CD reader then hit the road.

Keith had a feeling it would be miles to go before he slept.

 

—

 

When they all arrived at the con, it was nonstop _go._ Keith was glad no one heeded Lance's suggestion of arriving there in costume. Between all the meeting and greeting, schmoozing and shooting, Keith hardly had a moment to catch his breath.

Somehow he came to find the busy comfortable. It was exhilarating, sure. Maybe even, _fun?_ Dizzying, absolutely. In the literal sense. All the energies cohabiting in such a concentrated area, added to the back and forth of walking and pacing and preparing, on top of being slowed and stopped by eager fans, kept Keith's head spinning.

He didn't think he’d enjoyed himself more in weeks. Maybe months.

The conspiracy clan finally settled. They found their rooms, put down their bags and pulled out their equipment. Keith knew that the lights and the mics and the cameras were all going to add to the bulk of an already cumbersome event. But Lance said not to worry buddy, he had it all under control. Shiro went along because gosh wouldn’t the fans love it and they might as well go all out like they always do.

Love, the fans did. Lance, Pidge, Shiro and Keith all had some free time before they had to return to their booth. Once they did, their line grew by the second. When the greets officially started, it seemed as though there were 2 more people for every 1 person that went.

Pidge was shaking with energy. Actually, so was Lance. Shiro, being the adultiest adult kept a cool head. The only reason Keith wasn’t shaking or nattering was because he was just too stunned. Shiro told them all to expect a good turn out when the day came. Seeing exactly how “good” the turn out was was inconceivable to Keith.

Like an assembly line, their fellow co-conspirators moved from Shiro to Lance to Pidge then Keith in that order, with time enough to ask a quick question or two. Take a quick photo or two. Give a brief compliment or two.

For hours, it went on.

Shiro gripped every right hand of their attendees with a gentle but firm grasp. “ _The perfect Shiro shake._ ” Every smiling face he met served to energize him. Hecklers were occasional, and little more than water off his back. Lance got prime real estate seating to see Shiro flounder and bluster with flirtatious fans. (Too bad Lance kept striking out with Shiro's sloppy seconds.)

Lance kept up his own energy. If Keith were being honest, he didn't know if Lance was planning on being his Channel… sona… self at the event; how could _that_ much energy be sustainable? Lance bitchslapped all of Keith’s doubts across his face. Not only was Lance his loud, raucous, genial, hospitable self, he was _more so_ as their time went on. He had too much fun doing crazy poses, making crazy faces in the fan’s pictures. It was good that he had Shiro's maturity to help temper him, but Keith also saw how Lance helped bring Pidge out of her shell.

Pidge brought nothing more and nothing less than herself to the table. Sardonic, quick-witted, quick-tongued- “ _You're so short!_ ” “ _Yep. Just like in the show”_ \- each person that came up to meet her knew just how much of a privilege it was to do so. She only let herself genuinely loosen up when she could nerd out with someone; an occurrence that was few and far between. In photos she mostly kept to herself. Responding to questions, she kept herself brief and direct.

As their hours bled agonizingly on, Keith felt like the trash can of everyone else’s auras, filled with Shiro’s confidence, Lance’s freneticism and Pidge’s candidness. He wondered if by the end of the thing he was going to recognize who he was. He sure recognized that distantly awkward smile in the fan-photos, alright. He also recognized everyone else’s unappreciated luck.

Yeah, okay, Shiro was hit on. It was never any less annoying- actually. No, sometimes it was cute. Sometimes it was suede smooth, the way certain people nearly seduced Shiro. It was common enough though, so no one could say they were surprised.

Lance tried to get himself hit on for reasons that eluded Keith. Nevertheless, they had all mentally prepared themselves for the plethora of comments on his _unnaturally blue, unnaturally beautiful_ eyes. They were bound to happen.

All Keith wanted to state for the record was that he was glad they decided to mentally prepare beforehand.

Knowing all too well the ways of the world, Pidge underwent mental fortitude of her own. She knew that she and her tiny arms were guaranteed to be some kind of controversial. She was right. Keith had to say that most of the people they met were relatively respectful, just as many people didn’t… know. Didn't know what to do, which euphemism to employ in regards to Pidge's size.

“I'm not even _that_ tiny!”

Apparently their good and gentle public would beg to differ.

Most controversial of all by far, for which Keith _knew_ he should have self-fortified but was too proud to; the words that left everyone’s lips when they were graced by Keith’s “ _so chiseled”_ and “ _kind of babyish?_ ” and “ _HOT_ ” face far, far paled in comparison to the homages made in surplus to his cotton, cloudy voice. Shiro, Pidge, Lance added no sugar to make the medicine go down.

“Keith Kogane, it is so nice to meet you! You know, I actually saw your ASMR video first and I… really liked it. I was just on Youtube looking for something to calm me down, but after I watched that one video, I actually got hooked” said a girl with vibrant red hair that was fading at the roots and ends.

“Thank you so much for posting your ASMR video! It’s my favorite one on your channel” said… well. Said just about every other person following.

More than Shiro’s propositions, more than Lance’s banterings, more than Pidge’s benign heckling, Keith’s exaltations got tiresome in Mach speeds.

Did any of his “friends” or “workplace associates” help him out? No! Not even close! With each comment to his voice Keith received, he could feel his face getting redder by the second. His “workplace associates” (Devilspawn sadists) snickered at his plight.

These fans weren’t shy about laying it on thick, either. After he started getting the hints that people wanted him to voice messages of more personal nature, he knew he had to start calling it a night.

After the longest 30 minutes of his life following that, the rest of his Campaign let him call it a night. The rest of the attendees in line they didn’t get to had to be shooed away. Selfishly, all Keith could see were the last shreds of his pride being saved by not having to reroute yet another comment to his voice. Even as the night was wrapped up, Keith proved unsuccessful over the lingering heat of his face.

 

—

 

The next day passed much in the same way. The Campaign woke up to enjoy another day of the convention's festivities, after a brief breakfast soiree. The day’s itinerary was spelled out nearly the same as the day previous, but with all of the fun; a fraction of the stress. There’s no meet and greet scheduled for their second day to which Lance was heartbroken. Really, he could feel the very fissures in his muscle tissue, _it’s real, Keith, heartbreak’s a real thing!_

Their schedule was open and lax. It was at the same time _packed_ with all the people and vendors and fun things they didn't get to do yesterday.

Did Keith also mention cosplay?

Really, nobody should have expected any different costuming choice from Shiro. Or at least, expected no better.

“What’s more satisfying than being a paladin?”

Lance and Keith would have been more disappointed had they truly been surprised.

Pidge insisted on being her most favorite and most obscure scientist, while Lance suggested she do something both nerdy and mainstream. She found a happy compromise by going as Doctors 12. She unapologetically stole all of Lance’s “financially stable graduate cosplay” thunder while she was at it.

Keith’s head-turning was more apology-inducing.

Lance tapped his hand on Keith’s left shoulder, twisted around his right, and gawked right in Keith’s face with his jaw dropped open.

“Who are you and what did you do with Keith?”

Keith gave Lance the decency of letting him close his mouth before responding. “I never said I didn't like cosplay. I just never got the time to do it."

His devilspawnish sadistic thinly-passing friendly coworker merely scoffed in response.

“Okay.”

That happy surprise happened moments after Keith walked out the hotel room. Pidge saved her shock and awe for the downstairs lobby where the main shindig was supposed to go down. Her critical eye sweep over Keith’s body.

Keith couldn’t help but shy into himself ever so much. “Yes?” He never knew if Pidge was disrobing him with her eyes or adding more clothes on.

“Nice wig."

It was after that little remark that Shiro decided to join their little party and give his two cents.

“You didn’t know this was what he was coming as?”

“I sure didn’t,” Pidge snickered.

Keith was sure he was matching the color of his sikan.

“Really?” Shiro was _too_ innocent in his asking. “I was so sure he would have.”

“ _Shiro-“_ Keith warned.

“Did he tell you,” Shiro ignored, “that he made his whole cosplay himself?”

From Pidge’s agape expression, Keith felt like he experienced deja vu. She began tugging and lifting at his clothes. Quite shocked. Quite awed. Shiro herded them farther into the crowd, leading them to and from merchants they all wanted to meet. Even as Pidge and Keith walked as one unit, she was relentless in inspecting Keith's authenticity.

“You made this all by hand?” she kinda sounded impressed.

“Yes, I did.”

“How do you even hide a project this big?”

Keith answered simply. “It’s pretty easy to with trying to keep up with the channel, alone."

Pidge did one last pass over Keith’s cosplay. She seemed to be looking for something specific. Then her eyebrows rose. Her eyes alit. She must have found it.

“Yeah okay your outfit’s great and all, but where’s your sword?”

Ah, yes. Keith knew it was only a matter of time.

“I’m good but I’m not that good.”

It made Pidge laugh in shock. It made Shiro laugh in pride, (he just couldn’t help his older brotherly satisfaction seeing his little bro having fun with his little friends.)

But between all that laughter, Keith knew it was only going to spell disaster.

When he audibly **_crashes_** into the moving weight coming toward him, he knew he was wasted.

He no longer heard the voices of snarky Pidge or professional Shiro. He did however, hear a (not that unfamiliar?) voice softly groaning scant inches to the left of him.

_Okay, okay. You’re fine. Just a little tumble. Help the other person first. Ask if they’re okay, ask if they’re-_

When he tilted his head up to reach out his hand, Keith realized why the voice had sounded so familiar.

“Are you alright?”

The woman rubbed a spot near her shoulder. “Oh, I’m quite fine, thanks.” She took the offered hand without a second glance.

Keith’s sure it was the fire red of his sleeve that made her do a double take.

“I’m… I’m alright.”

He patiently, silently waited as his pulse worked itself thrice over in his body. His heartbeat was pumping out in every vein from head to toe. The woman continued her line of sight from his outstretched hand to his full-clad outfit. Funny. It was like everywhere her eyes went, the goosebumps on his arms followed.

Enough of the surprise must have passed, because she led them both to stand and found her voice to speak.

It came out more like a whisper when she asked if he’s “ _Keith?_ ”

Working with ghosts for so long, he knew that seeing is much more than believing.

“Allura?”

She’s got a wig on too, decked out in full cosplay to boot, but he’d know those ice blue irises (and that contour) anywhere.

A little confusedly, a little awkwardly, maybe even a touch manically, Allura repeated herself. Just a little louder.

“Keith?”

He was still holding on to her hand.

“Allura.”

Bright, joyously, disbelieving she laughed and exclaimed

“Keith!"

He couldn't help but join in.

“Hey…Allura.”

(Off in a distant... distance, he heard a faint exchange of two names being called back and forth. Then, the voices totally retreated.)

Allura gripped his hand even tighter once she remembers it was there. She, like Pidge, perused all the article’s of Keith’s cosplay. She smiled. He’s warm to the idea that she liked what she saw.

“Oh my goodness, Keith!” Then she thrusted his hand away. “I can’t believe it’s really you!” To immediately wrap him up in a suffocating hug.

“Me either,” he wheezed out.

“And you’re. You’re. You’re-“ she pulled them apart, keeping her hands firm over the slopes of his shoulders.

“I’m?”

“ _Inuyasha!!_ ”

Oh yeah. That too.

“I don’t know how to feel about all this,” she exclaimsed again.

“It’s pretty funny.”

“It-“ Allura turned her head. “Hm?”

Keith was quick to backtrack. “I mean, I mean the costumes. It’s funny. The ‘all this’. Cause, you know-“ he briefly gestured to her, “-we match.”

She quickly looks down at herself. At her brown leather school shoes. Her long white tube socks. She gasps. “You’re right, we do.” And then snickered. “We should have traded hair beforehand!”

“What do you mean?”

“You know.” Allura was probably trying to allude him to something he’ll probably never get without her spelling it out to him, so he glad when she spelled it out to him. “I already had silver hair. You had the silky black, perfect for Kagome."

“Oh, for Kagome.” Keith agreed. “ _Oh!_ Yeah, you're right!” he internalized.

“Funny how it all works out.”

At that, Allura laughed, which makes Keith realize just how much laughing they’ve both done within the first few moments of even meeting each other. Keith’s had to be honest, hefelt a bit overwhelmed. He didn’t know how to explain it, but Allura’s laugh, it… it was making him distracted.

Allura took the silent moment to breathe out the thought that’s been striking Keith the whole time.

“What are the chances that I’d meet you here. That we’d both be here, right here, in this very place, at the same time?”

Keith wondered the same thing.

“Did you come late yesterday? To the meet and greet?”

The woman’s eyebrows crossed “Yesterday?”

With a reaction like that, Keith guessed she wasn't there here yesterday. She confirmed his suspicions.

“Ah, that’s right.” The smile she gave was (distractingly) wry. “I didn’t make it yesterday, no. I was… No don't laugh, but. I was caught in traffic.”

Keith’s eyes blew wide, and he was glad Allura gave that warning before he completely lost it. She didn’t have to tell him the burden of California traffic twice.

“To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised I was able to make it at all. Over the summer, work usually calls me in to cover everyone else’s shift. Imagine if I weren’t so insisting on taking this very weekend for my first ever vacation, I might not have been able to meet you now. Or ever, at all.”

It was as if she could hear Keith’s _“what’s so great about me_ ” in her own head, because the very next thing out of her mouth was,

“It’s good that I have. Gotten to meet you. You’re a bit of my hero, Keith.”

And if hearing Allura saying his name _didn't_ give him a headrush-

“It’s all thanks to you that I made my own Youtube channel. I have you to thank that it actually got off the ground.” Her palm was gentle gentle gentle when she rested it on his elbow. “I don’t know where I’d be without your boosts of confidence and support. Being here, right now, seeing you in the flesh as it were, is all quite surreal to me.”

Most honestly speaking, Keith wasn't convinced that he did anything for Allura that she couldn't have done for herself. The way she spoke in her videos, the way she dressed and articulated and even held herself in that moment- they all spoke to her own confidence in spades. Keith’s just impressed with himself that he got to be a part of it.

(And even even _more_ truthfully speaking, him meeting Allura was greater than surreal to him. For the weeks leading up to the convention, Keith could have sworn he was getting less and less hazy premonitions about _something_ being out here waiting for him, calling to him. He didn't know what they could mean, but he also didn’t want to hope. He didn’t want to get his hopes up. He knew more than most how hope was a dangerous thing. Now, being face to face and side by side with Allura as she led them back to his friends- friends?- yeah, friends; he felt all dreams of his fitful sleep come together. They congealed to make an image with startling clarity. That image was distractingly similar to the hand clasped around his, to the face walking before him.)

Keith didn't want to think where _he'd_ be if Allura hadn’t come along when she did.

_You know, sometimes my dreams do come true._

Truthfully, the least that fate the universe strings of time could do for Keith, was let him meet a woman like Allura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know i missed prime time to call Allura's channel Princess Alluring but you know. you live and you learn, right
> 
> hey a random question but i want to know, what song(s) Take You Back? i've been listening to like, city girl and city girl alone lately and especially on the album snow rose, a light is never dim, cold or alone just reminds me of when i was in japan and young or being in quantico and jumping into leaf piles. Berenstein by the band camino also gives me those nostalgia vibes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ,, an experimental chapter

 

“Greetings, everyone! I am so terribly excited for you to join me today. I do not know how to possibly contain my joy, there is so much to share. I’m sure from you reading the video title you’ll know that this will be a video of a different sort. Before I continue I must confess, I never planned on making a video such as this. I never planned to, it never crossed my mind. I apologize to both myself and you kind viewer, that I am now breaking my own vow. However, I hope and think you’ll forgive me in light of what this video is going to be about. …And what it is titled. Be excited with me, because I’m sure for many of you, this was perhaps a long time coming. Well, enough introductions. Last week, you'll never believe who I met-"

 

—

 

_“Hey, everyone.We know we’re not really the faces you’ve come here for-“_

_“Speak for yourself, Pidge. Everyone here knows, you guys know you’re all here for the main event.”_

_“The main event. Where, did I miss it?”_

_“Hello! I’m right here!”  
“Yeah, you are. Unfortunately.”_

_“I resent that."_

_“Noted, Lance. In any case, Shiro and I- okay, okay, and Lance too since he’s here I guess, all have a very special video for you. … Huhhh. Fine, Lance. Would you like to do the honors?”_

_“It would be my greatest honor, Pidge! Thought you’d never ask. Before we got into this video, we just wanted to share with you some of the inspiration behind it. I hope you guys find it as beautiful as I did, I only wish you could have seen it with your own two eyes. It was like fate and stardust stepped in to make a meeting this beautiful. It all started when-“_

_“Oh my_ gosh. _Never mind, your honors are revoked. I’m telling them. We made this video because honestly, you’ll never see anything better in your life. It’s honestly… It’s so great.”_

_“Okay, so obviously this intro was pretty pointless. You guys are going to have to see it with your own eyes. Pidge, roll the tape.”_

_“It would be my greatest honor, Lance.”_

_…_

_“_ Inuyashaa!”

“Kagome!!”

_“Inuyashaa-“_

 

—

 

“Salutations, greetings. Welcome, hello! I’m so excited to have you with me, today. If you don’t know me I’m Princess Allura and you are now a guest in my humble boudoir. If you _do_ know me, you know that I encourage total relaxation, which means I discourage bras, bobby-pins and make up past 8 at night. Today though ladies, you may want to keep them on! I have a special guest with me today, but he’s rather a bit shy.

“Now gentlemen, I know you’ve been asking for this video quite fervently. Don’t worry, I see you! Our special guest today is going to be one of a few models I am delighted to style with you. For you gentlemen that want to start or refine your wardrobe; ladies, when you feel like dolling up your man or throwing on a tailored blazer yourself, I hope you stay with me to the end as I share all my tips and secrets. Without _any_ further ado, please make welcome to my channel-“

 

—

 

“ _Guys. Honestly. I don’t even know why we’re here. This house isn’t even_ that _haunted. There’s only three ghosts! What gives! When can we go home?”_

_“Three ghosts is haunted enough, Lance.”_

_“Yeah, maybe to you Keith Mc-I-Can-Feel-Them-All-Around-Me-Thickening-The-Air-I’m-Breathing-Gane."_

_“I don’t even know how you said that all in one breath but shut up. I'm hearing something in-“_

_“Keith, do you hear- AAAHHH!”_

_“Wait! A-“_

 

_—_

 

“He- _llo_ everyone! Welcome back to my boudoir! So delighted to have you. On account of the high, so terribly highly requested comments- and I do mean high, it was ridiculous though I’m sure he’s terribly flattered- I bring back my illustrious model! Or should I say elusive? Ghastly? Ooh, no. I'm looking at his face off-camera right now and it’s not a happy one, he didn’t like ghastly. _Perhaps it’s because I’ve touched a nerve because he knows it to be true as much as I do._ Okay, okay, I’m sorry! Enough teasing. Back again to be my help, or what I like to call, my living dress-up doll; our very own ghost-loving, conspiracy-hunting- wait. Don’t tell me I’ve mixed those up, again. You know what, let’s just get into the video! So tell me, how are you doing today, K-“

 

—

 

“ _Just for the record, I think this is_ _weird. And we hunt ghosts for a living.”_

_“Thank you for your input, Pidge. Just remember that if you even raise your voice more than this, you will be kicked out of the video, and you_ will _disappoint Shiro. And you know how much Shiro hates to be disappointed.”_

_“Wrong, Lance. You always feel worse for disappointing Shiro than he feels about actually being disappointed.”_

_“You know what. For once, I actually agree with you, Keith.”_

_“Lance-“_

_“There, there boys. So for any of you that have been with the channel for any length of time, you’d know that Keith here did his own ASMR video awhile back. All of you have been… frankly, you’ve been on all our backs to get Keith to do another one again, so we did you one better. The whole crew: Me, Lance, Keith and Shiro, are all going to narrate another scenario for you. It’s going to be more like an average ASMR video, but like Keith’s video, you won’t see our faces.”_

_“You’ll just hear our dulcet, velvet voices. Ah!-  
“-Shhh, Lance!-“_

_“-Shh-“_

_“You know who we should have invited to do this with us? You guys don’t know this unless you’ve_ really _been watching our videos, but I got this buddy named Hunk-“_

_“We actually have another guest joining us, today. A lot of you probably already know her. I’ve gotten to meet her, and she’s honestly the best stylist, influencer, or even person I’ve ever met.”_

_“How many stylists have you been meeting, Keith?”_

_“Uh-“_

_“Oh Keith, you flatter me.”_

_“Everyone, please welcome the one and only Allura!”_

 

_—_

 

“Hello everyone, welcome back to my boudoir. I am so delighted to have you here with me, I’m very excited to go on this journey with you. Last week’s challenge video was indeed a challenge, but you all were absolutely right. I was doing too many Western looks lately, so the harajuku was a much needed stretch. It was so needed in fact, I thought, why not keep it up? Also because there’s no one here to stop me, I went so far as to include a guest who I’m sure you’re all very familiar with at this point. Today, we’re giving the internet’s- and my- favorite ghost hunter a full style make over. And, to spice it up _even more_ , we are going to be shopping exclusively at our cities local thrift stores. We are all in for a treat, today!”

“I’ve been told consignment stores don’t count.”

“Well they don’t, Keith! Have you seen the price tags on some of their petticoats? It’s hard enough finding crinoline as it is, but I digress.”

“Are you going to be putting me in a petticoat?”

“Hmm. Don’t tempt me. Anyway, stick with us gentle audience and kind viewers until the end, to see Keith’s total style transformation! I think I want to start a series with all the videos you’re in and call it ‘Keith’s Dress-Up Closet’. You know, because it’s a little separate but you’re still a part of my boudoir."

“…Does that mean I’m still wearing a petticoat, or-“

 

—

 

_“Guys! We’ve got an amazing video for you all today!”_

_“Obviously we do, Allura’s here with us. When are we ever better without her?”_

_“As right as Lance is, that’s all I’m going to let him say about that because we can’t keep letting these intros with Allura be 5 minutes long. Because I’m only one in the room not sexually attracted to Allura, no offense,”_

_“None taken, Pidge.”_

_“-Cool. It means that I get to announce that it’s Allura from the Beauty Boudoir that found today’s conspiracy. I’m very excited.”_

_“You know how I can tell you’re not being facetious, Pidge? You’re clutching your arm rests very tightly. Not to worry, though! I’m just as excited for this as you are. If not, more. You know how honored I am to join your conspiracy campaign.”_

_“We’re always over the moon when you agree to be on our channel. And we at the campaign as well as our viewers should be expecting to see a lot more of you. Isn’t that right, Keith?”_

 

_—_

 

“Hello, greetings, good day, salutations, warmest welcome to those of you here in the boudoir! Before we even begin, I have a very special announcement to share with all of you.”

 

—

 

“ _Not that it’s at all or in any way relevant to our channel, but Keith.”_

_“… Yeah, Pidge?”_

_“You wanna tell the fans what they’ve been waiting to hear for months now?”_

 

—

 

 

“-and my boyfriend, Keith will be joining me on the channel,”

 

—

 

“- _my girlfriend Allura’s going to be ghost hunting with me. And Allura, you’ve already been with the campaign several times so you already know what to do-“_

 

_—_

 

“I can’t wait to meet all of your lovely faces at the convention next month! Leave a comment down below as to who you think Keith and I will be cosplaying as! The first 5 people to get it right get the special giveaway prize-“

 

—

 

_“Hey, everyone. Internet. Today we’re going to the local school to hunt down some rumors about that screaming boy in the science classroom. I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I’ve been to this school before. Yes, I’ve talked with this boy before. Allura’s coming with me now, though and honestly, I think the ghosts like me better when she's around. They just like her more, which I’m okay with. If she’s around, maybe this little boy will finally find his peace.”_

 

—

 

“Welcome to the boudoir, everyone. Now, I can already hear your thoughts from right where you are. ‘Why is this woman doing yet another vlog’? To help me explain it all, I have my better half with me, right where I want him. You all have been so curious to our story, and I thought now is finally the time to share. It’s perhaps a silly story and this video will not be very long. I don’t even have to be in my editing chair to know that. But I can already tell you too, that it… well it began with a bit of a mistake! I can honestly tell you, it was the best mistake I ever made.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finito,  
> bye

**Author's Note:**

> expand this universe? you tell me
> 
> feel free to leave a comment, i reply to every single one
> 
>  
> 
> ((edits/beta to come)))


End file.
